Toshiba’s 2560×1440 Kirabook is a high-res laptop for the Windows world

The 13.3" Ultrabook challenges the Retina MacBook Pro and the Chromebook Pixel.

If you're a Windows user who has been stealing jealous glances at the high-resolution screens of the Retina MacBook Pro and the Chromebook Pixel, Toshiba's just-announced Kirabook may be of interest to you. The laptop's banner feature is its 13.3-inch, 2560×1440 display—just slightly lower than the smaller Retina MacBook's 2560×1600, but still considerably higher than most Ultrabooks.

Like the other high-resolution laptops we've seen so far, you'll pay a premium to get the Kirabook—pricing starts at $1,599, which includes an Ivy Bridge Core i5 CPU, a 256GB SSD, 8GB of RAM, and a backlit keyboard. A $1,999 model will also add a touchscreen and a Core i7 processor.

Toshiba's since-pulled press release, currently posted on Engadget, says that the laptop is 0.7 inches thick and weighs 2.6 pounds. This puts it in between the Pixel (0.64 inches) and the Retina MacBook Pro (0.75 inches) in thickness, though it's considerably lighter than either of the two (the Pixel is 3.35 pounds and the MacBook weighs 3.57). The laptop will be available for pre-order beginning on May 3rd and will begin shipping on May 12.

When will we get a video display spec that will yield even higher resolutions and refresh rates? We've maxed out what dual-link DVI can handle and DP doesn't look like it pushes resolution + refresh rates much further.

My Windows PC already has a 2560x1440 display courtesy of a Korean made IPS panel. It's also twice the size of t 13.3" laptop. I love the high resolution, but at least in my opinion, it seems wasted on such a small screen.

When will we get a video display spec that will yield even higher resolutions and refresh rates? We've maxed out what dual-link DVI can handle and DP doesn't look like it pushes resolution + refresh rates much further.

Unfortunately, Windows does a horrible, horrible job of handling HiDPI. Nearly no applications gracefully handle variations in DPI to the extent needed by a resolution this high.

But you are assuming we want scaling. There are those of us with very good eyes who don't want larger/clearer fonts; we would rather have more programs on-screen. All of my laptops have been 1920x1200 (which feels cramped compared to my main 2560x1600 screen), and I am excited to see higher resolutions showing up in laptops more and more.

This is what I want too. If it had a GeForce 650 or something along those lines I'd be sold instantly. I want some real gaming capability, it does not have to be a lot. As I understand it the current gen Intel graphics are roughly equivalent to what is in my current laptop, a late 2007 era Dell Inspiron 1520 with a GeForce 6800GT. Which makes an upgrade kind of pointless.

Unfortunately, Windows does a horrible, horrible job of handling HiDPI. Nearly no applications gracefully handle variations in DPI to the extent needed by a resolution this high.

But you are assuming we want scaling. There are those of us with very good eyes who don't want larger/clearer fonts; we would rather have more programs on-screen. All of my laptops have been 1920x1200 (which feels cramped compared to my main 2560x1600 screen), and I am excited to see higher resolutions showing up in laptops more and more.

Edit: And no, this kind of pixel density isn't going to work without scaling. Remember that the original without-scaling font was intended for 12-17' screens have 720p resolution. We've moved so far away from that at 100% the font is positively tiny on retina displays.

Here is pictures of the RMBP with WIN7, at 100%. Not quite usable in any sense.

When will we get a video display spec that will yield even higher resolutions and refresh rates? We've maxed out what dual-link DVI can handle and DP doesn't look like it pushes resolution + refresh rates much further.

Unfortunately, Windows does a horrible, horrible job of handling HiDPI. Nearly no applications gracefully handle variations in DPI to the extent needed by a resolution this high.

But you are assuming we want scaling. There are those of us with very good eyes who don't want larger/clearer fonts; we would rather have more programs on-screen. All of my laptops have been 1920x1200 (which feels cramped compared to my main 2560x1600 screen), and I am excited to see higher resolutions showing up in laptops more and more.

Unfortunately, Windows does a horrible, horrible job of handling HiDPI. Nearly no applications gracefully handle variations in DPI to the extent needed by a resolution this high.

But you are assuming we want scaling. There are those of us with very good eyes who don't want larger/clearer fonts; we would rather have more programs on-screen. All of my laptops have been 1920x1200 (which feels cramped compared to my main 2560x1600 screen), and I am excited to see higher resolutions showing up in laptops more and more.

In a 13" display? I'm guessing you've never gotten even remotely close. Go try running Windows without scaling on a rMBP. Then come tell me you don't want scaling.

This is what I want too. If it had a GeForce 650 or something along those lines I'd be sold instantly. I want some real gaming capability, it does not have to be a lot. As I understand it the current gen Intel graphics are roughly equivalent to what is in my current laptop, a late 2007 era Dell Inspiron 1520 with a GeForce 6800GT. Which makes an upgrade kind of pointless.

Not even close.

The Intel HD 4000 is more along the lines of a desktop 8800 GT, it is night and day faster to your mobile 6800 GT.

What I'd like is the full desktop done in SVG or an equivalent. It should be able to detect DPI and resolution and automatically choose a sane "small, medium, and large" icon and font set. Give me an "overall" slider to scale everything up or down from the default sizes, then individual sliders for desktop icons, the start menu - or start screen now - title bar size / font size, etc.

If your graphics system is too slow for true dynamic scaling, then let me do the scaling and, click set, then have the system churn for a bit - potentially a long bit - to pre-scale everything. We have the technology, I'd love to see it actually put into use. I think Qt / KDE is the closest to this, but I'd really like to see everything SVG'd.

In 2007 I bought two Dell 3007WFP 2560x1600 displays and thought I would never need more pixels. Boy I was wrong. VStudio grows hungrier each release and the complexity of development has doubled in the last 5 years. VS2012's debugger can easily take one of the displays and source code + documentation the other one. I could easily use two displays more and have them arranged in a semi-circle.

When I read the Kirabook specs I thought that it would be a perfect compromise in that you can turn the extra screens on and off as needed but on second thoughts, the microscopic pixels may be a problem. Good for watching videos or playing games but maybe too small for development, compared to a display.

Nonetheless, it seems like a fantastic unit and I'll definitely run to the store to play with one as soon as it comes out..

This is a direct response to the Microsoft Surface and Apple's MacBooks.

They've come around to the realization that a low-margin race to the bottom is not really a good business plan. At this juncture, I don't think it's going to matter for either company -but then of course, that's just me farting my opinion.

But you are assuming we want scaling. There are those of us with very good eyes who don't want larger/clearer fonts; we would rather have more programs on-screen. All of my laptops have been 1920x1200 (which feels cramped compared to my main 2560x1600 screen), and I am excited to see higher resolutions showing up in laptops more and more.

No kidding... I could use three monitors of that resolution. I have two 1920x1080 (one is the laptop screen, the other is 27") and I don't have nearly enough screen real estate.

If you take a look at Japanese branding schemes sparkling(キラキラ、ぴかぴか), light, shine, lightning etc. (related to 光) are used a lot (really a lot).

On-topic: Hardware-wise, I've been waiting for something like this for Windows.

Software-wise, the Windows desktop is pretty bad at handling High-DPI Displays and while the Modern UI is great with high-dpi displays unless you get something like Office for Modern UI or Photoshop for Modern UI ( or in my case a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) or a Notation Software for Modern UI) there is a problem finding an usage scenario for this Ultrabook.